Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt Invests $76,000 in Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB)

Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt purchased a new stake in Albemarle Co. (NYSE:ALB) in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 802 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock, valued at approximately $76,000.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Jane Street Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Albemarle by 176.6% in the 1st quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 1,588,986 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $209,333,000 after buying an additional 3,662,117 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors purchased a new position in shares of Albemarle during the first quarter worth about $49,007,000. PGGM Investments increased its position in shares of Albemarle by 261.6% during the first quarter. PGGM Investments now owns 413,492 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $54,473,000 after purchasing an additional 299,148 shares in the last quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Albemarle by 115.7% in the 2nd quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC now owns 542,200 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $51,791,000 after purchasing an additional 290,862 shares during the last quarter. Finally, ProShare Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Albemarle by 22.9% in the 1st quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 1,423,897 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $187,584,000 after purchasing an additional 265,313 shares during the period. 92.87% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Albemarle Trading Up 2.6 %

Shares of ALB opened at $98.25 on Thursday. Albemarle Co. has a fifty-two week low of $71.97 and a fifty-two week high of $172.09. The company has a market capitalization of $11.55 billion, a PE ratio of 35.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 13.81 and a beta of 1.54. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $89.06 and a two-hundred day moving average of $103.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a current ratio of 2.67.

Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.04 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.53 by ($0.49). The business had revenue of $1.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.34 billion. Albemarle had a positive return on equity of 6.38% and a negative net margin of 6.72%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 39.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $7.33 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Albemarle Co. will post 0.46 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently weighed in on ALB. Scotiabank decreased their price objective on Albemarle from $135.00 to $85.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, August 6th. Citigroup reduced their price target on shares of Albemarle from $137.00 to $100.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, July 12th. HSBC downgraded shares of Albemarle from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $95.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their target price on shares of Albemarle from $128.00 to $111.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, August 6th. Finally, UBS Group lowered their price target on Albemarle from $124.00 to $109.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have assigned a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $117.60.

Albemarle Company Profile

Albemarle Corporation develops, manufactures, and markets engineered specialty chemicals worldwide. It operates through three segments: Energy Storage, Specialties and Ketjen. The Energy Storage segment offers lithium compounds, including lithium carbonate, lithium hydroxide, and lithium chloride; technical services for the handling and use of reactive lithium products; and lithium-containing by-products recycling services.